October 2011

October 31, 2011

Western societies have largely lost the ability to think in images rather than words.-Ian Robertson

Is your conflict resolution process full of words, words, and more words? Then it is probable that large amounts of wisdom, creativity and innovation are absent. Full-brained mediators, and parties, know to use something more than words: Vivid thinking.

"Vivid Thinking" is a mnemonic. Vi-V-id stands for Visual-Verbal-Interdependent thinking. It is a simple idea that says we haven’t really thought through an idea until we have both talked about it and looked at it, and that we can’t really explain an idea until we can both write about it and draw it. Vivid thinking does not accept that an either/or verbal-vs-visual approach ever fully illuminates an idea; on the contrary Vivid Thinking demands that we must exercise both our verbal and visual minds in concert if we really wish to understand an idea. Talk + look; write +draw = Vivid.

It is not that there is no difference between the right and left hemispheres of the brain; it is just that we are arriving at a new level of understanding and sophistication about the differences. Most self-help books of the 20th century are not good sources. I recommend you learn from Robertson and McGilchrist.

Verbal, visual, left brain, right brain. Do you want all of your clients' minds and brains involved, as well as all of yours, when conflict is being addressed? If so, I invite you to explore some of the above resources.

There are many ways to engage the full brain. Two methods are graphic recording (example on iPad) and graphic facilitation. I have been experimenting with the former and will be learning the latter soon. Why? Because we need to use new methods in this new century to take advantage of our new knowledge about the brain.

I owe it to my clients to engage in full-brained mediation. I will be blogging about other methods in the coming months. (Here's one previous post about using images as well as words in mediation, and another.)

It is important to be diligent in evaluating what you hear and read. Remember when we all thought that communication was 55% body language, 38% tonality, and 7% words? Then we wised up to the Meharabian Myth and realized we needed to be more discerning about what he hear from speakers and trainers, and read from self-professed experts.

Be careful out there. Myths, urban legends, and falsehoods abound. The truth as we know it thus far is available but we need to be mindful and to engage critical thought in our search. May your mediations be based on the brain, the full brain and nothing but the truth.

Note: I will continue to add resources related to using the whole brain here on this post. Please check back. And let me know if you have any suggested resources. Thank you.

October 21, 2011

Click to listen to an excellent interview of Jeff on Achieve Radio in which he talks about rewiring your brain and changing habits. He begins by describing how he lowered his blood sugar using his "mind alone." He talks about self-transparency, the benefits of finding your true self, your animal brain and how to talk back to it, his 4-step method, the 15-minute rule, the toxicity of all-or-none thinking, deceptive brain messages, focusing of attention, the difference between us and animals, the placebo effect, Hebbs Law, the difference between the mind and the brain, and much more.

October 18, 2011

I've been using Thomas-Kilmann for decades in seminars I teach, on many topics; the model is very versatile and always sparks helpful discussion and awareness. (Below are links to my previous posts on T-K.) Today I read in mediate.com that the instrument and model is 40 years old! In recognition of that anniversary, mediate.com is publishing a series of articles by Ralph Kilmann.

The model is based on 5 ways of responding to conflict: avoiding, accommodating, collaborating, compromising, and collaborating. Kilmann first writes about avoiding; click to read what he has to say. I will add links below to all the articles as they are published.

And speaking of anniversaries, last week marked the 400th edition of mediate.com. We are very fortunate to have such an excellent resources for those of us in the field of dispute resolution. Thank you, thanks a million, mediate.com!